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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Wow - what a day. Jet lag is whipping us around. When I travel alone I just give in to it. With four children along (well only three at the hotel) that is not such a good idea. I'm thinking about blue pills in the pudding tomorrow night. ::snort:: Just kidding - sort of. ::wink::

Wonderful Thanksgiving meal at moms with six of our nine children, myself, Mom and Dad, Amy and Harmony and Andrew. It was fun to visit with Will and Sherri's kids. We missed those not with us.

Zander was thrilled when the Cowboys won at football.

We Skyped with Michael and realized the price of he and Jared's tickets to TX are quite a bit more than we expected. So much more that the four other children and I myself will have to take our luck with Space A when we leave the states. I was hoping we could fly from DFW to Tokyo....but oh well. It cost $150 for us to fly from Misawa to SEA.... sure beats $10K. I am trying to get info on what flights may be heading back to any Japan location the week of 17 Dec. I REALLY WOULD LOVE TO BE HOME A FEW WEEKS BEFORE I HAVE TWO TRIPS TO TAKE IN JANUARY. I'm really a homebody. LOL

Nolan and Arielle are out to experience "midnight madness" with the older gherkins. I sent them with Christmas money and a clothing allowance. They'll spend the night at the girls apartment. I'm not sure what all they're planning for us tomorrow. I plan to sleep in until I HAVE to get up...this a.m. folks began dragging suitcases above our head, slamming car doors outside the window and yelling in the hallways....around 7 a.m. About 9:30 it quieted down and we slept until someone called to see if we wanted our room clean. I bit my tongue - so wanted to say "Um....do not disturb would mean no." ::snort:: Hoping for more sleep tonight.

I've been trying to Skype with Michael tonight but am not making connections.

I took Zander and Stacia to the pool for their end of the day swim. We've been spoiled by being the only family in the pool the last two nights. There were 28 people in it tonight. YIKES. Watching the family dynamics in the pool (not ours) was actually sobering and heartbreaking.

We waited for Arielle and BreAnne to get out of the shower and for the girls to show up at our hotel. During this time, having slept through the FREE hot breakfast at the hotel, we discovered Denny's will feed us ALL - all you can eat breakfast for under $20. Now THAT'S a deal. LOL

BreAnne and Krista drove over to my parents. Their mission was to get my parents out to the kitchen. The kids and I followed. We simply walked into the house and on into the kitchen. I have a picture where my mother looks TOTALLY surprised - but she's sticking her tongue out so I won't post it. ::snort::

Mom said she knew we were coming. I'm glad we did (as we didn't even know we were coming until yesterday) or she would have been very disappointed. She had seen a comment on Facebook early in the a.m. and said she figured we were coming. We still say she SUSPECTED we were coming but wasn't sure so it counts as a surprise.

Happy even if not totally surprised as we'd hoped and planned

Dad was in the back. She called for him to come help her in the kitchen. He came...and we SURPRISED him.....no doubt.

Surprised!

We spent the rest of the day visiting with Mom and Dad. Arielle decided to go to youth group with Krista. BreAnne was watching Harmony (our grandniece). I took them all out to dinner and then we split ways.

Oldest Gherkin and Harmony

BreAnne and Harmony agreed to meet the 3 younger ones and I at Target. I nearly had culture shock right there in the store. Wow. I DID get pants long enough for my thin, long-legged children. I scoped out a new camera (Cannon Powershot ELPH - on SALE Michael) but didn't buy it. I heard someone call my name and was thrilled to turn around and see our niece. How fun to steal a quick hug before the morning. We dearly love our Harmony lovin.

I'm having QUITE the time remembering NOT to get on the left side of the road. I'm not sure why this is so hard for me. Good grief.

The younger ones wanted to swim....so I took them swimming from 8:00 - 10:00 p.m. BreAnne went home, got her suit and joined us. Then we visited a bit. I dearly miss the heart to hearts with the older gherkins. What a blessing to be here!

It's now 1:27 a.m. on thanksgiving HERE - so I think I'm going to try to fall asleep so I can stay awake when I'm supposed to be awake tomorrow to EAT. ::snort::